Billiard appliance.



W. G. STEWART. BILLIARD APPLIANCE.

APPLICATION TILED MAR. 9, 1912.

1,051,528, Patented Jan.28,1913.

l I 10 W c z 5 5 6 i if 0 10 1 I? l j I x I r 1 W5 9 l W 2/ f mm? W I i 2 I @aka 2 y;

% m i i 20 m: l

arrow;

WALTER G. STEWART, ALLENTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA.

BILLIARD APPLIANCE.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, VVALTER G. STEWART, a subject of the King of Great Britain, residing at 212 North Church street, Allentown, in the county of Lehigh and State of Pennsylvania, have invented new and useful Improvements in Billiard Appliances, of which the following is a specification.

The invention relates to billiards and the various sub-divisional games connected with the game of billiards and has for an object to provide an appliance therefor.

The invention embodies more particularly an appliance preferably adapted for use in, the game of pool, which game is a subclassification of the game of billiards and in which a number of pills are employed, my device being provided for recording various procedures in the game and for containing all pills used in the game while the game is being played.

In the game of pill pool, each player is given a pill provided with a numeral designating a number ball on the pool table and the player is not supposed to tell the number of the pill which he receives until a certain occurrence in the game necessitates disclosing the number of the pill which the player has. It has been found that in the game of pill pool, the players oft-times place the pills they receive in their pockets and forget to return the same to the operator of the table when the game is finished. It is also found that the players oft-times endeavor to obtain two pills, whereas they are each only entitled to one, it being readily understood that when a player obtains more than one pill the chances for cheating in the game and depriving other players of a point that they are entitled to, are clearly evident. In order to overcome this difficulty I have provided a device which includes a score board and a series of containers into which the players are supposed to place the pills they receive, one container being provided for each player, to receive the pill of the player, the mentioned containers being so arranged that the other players cannot determine the numeral of the pill of one player, when the pill has been placed in one of the containers, the container being also arranged so that the pills .can be easily removed therefrom when the game has been completed.

In the further disclosure of the invention reference is to be had to the accompanying Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed March 9, 1912.

Patented J an. 28, 1913.

Serial No. 682,702.

drawings, constituting a part of this spec-ification, in which similar characters of reference denoting corresponding parts in all the views, and in which:

Figure 1 is a front elevation of my device: Fig. 2 is a plan view, and Fig. 3 is a vertical transverse sectional view taken on line 33 in Fig. 1.

Referring more particularly to the views use is made ofa board body 10 having a portion thereof forming a black board 11, a holder 12 being mounted on the board body 10 and containing all chalk that is used in playing the game of billiards, a circular support 18 being mounted on a board body 18 to support a bottle 14, the mentioned bottle being employed in various subdivisional games of the game of billiards.

Rigidly secured to the front side of the board body 10 beneath the black board 11, and extending laterally to the board body is a horizontally arranged plate 15, a series of containers 16 being slidably mounted upon the plate 15 and arranged in relative adjacent position, suitable partitions 17 being secured to the plate 15, and extending up wardly therefrom, to space the containers 16, the mentioned plate 15 constituting the bottom for each of the containers 16 and upon which the containers are adapted to slide forwardly as will be readily seen by referring to the figures.

A series of slots 18 are provided in the plate 15 and mounted to extend upwardly through the slots are handles 19, said handles being rigidly connected to one of the containers 16 so that when a handle is slid forwardly on the plate 15, a pill 20 reposing in the container will move forward with the container when the same is slid forwardly on the plate 15, and will gravitationally drop out of the container when the front end of the container is spaced sufiiciently from the front end of the plate to provide an opening large enough to permit of the exit of the pill it being readily seen that the handles 19 of the container 16, operating in the slots 18, will limit the forward movement of the containers and pre vent the same from disengagement with the plate 15. Each container 16 is provided with an opening 21, preferably made in the top 22 of each container, the opening being sufliciently large to permit of dropping the pill 20 therethrough and into the container. The front sides of the container are provided with characters 23, the said characters being provided to designate the position of the players when playing the game as will be hereinafter more fully disclosed.

In playing the game of pill pool, the required number of pills are placed in the bottle 1.4, it being understood that the number of pills in the bottle are equal to the number of balls on the table and the numerals on the pills correspond with the numerals on the balls on the table. Each player is now given a pill and must not disclose the number of the pill he receives to any of the other players. Now if a player named A is to play first, he places the pill he receives in the container designated by the numeral 1, the container being at this time in closed position. Similarly the player B who is to play next, places his pill in the container designated by the numeral 2, it being understood however that the numeral of the pill need not correspond with the numeral of the container. The game is now played in the usual manner and when the game has been completed, by grasping the handles 19 and pulling forwardly thereon, the container may be moved into an open position as shown in the dotted lines in Fig. 3, and the pills will gravitationally drop therefrom. It will be thus seen that by placing the pills in the various containers in the manner mentioned the tendency of the pills to become lost will be greatly reduced and the tendency to cheat will be prevented, in View of. the fact that only one pill can be placed in one of the containers at one time and any attempt of the player to drop more than one pill in one of. the containers would be noticed by the remaining players. The number of games played by the various players may be recorded upon the black board 11 and in this manner a complete account of the procedure will at all times be presented to the players.

I claim:

.1. In a billiard appliance the combination with a board body of a series of containers slidably mounted thereon and supported thereby, the said containers being independent-1y movable into open or closed position, handles connected with the said containers for operating the same and means, adapted to be engaged by the handles, for limiting the outward movement of the. containers relatively to the board body.

2. In a billiard appliance the combination with a board body, of a slotted plate rigidly secured thereto, a series of containers slidably mounted on the said plate and handles extending upwardly through the slots of the plate and connected to the said containers for independently moving the same into open or closed position, the said handles being adapted to limit the sliding movement of the said containers.

3. In a billiard appliance, the combination with a board body, of a series of bottomless containers slidably mounted thereon, a portion of the said board body forming bottoms for the said containers when the same are in normal and closed position on the board body, the said containers being movable forwardly into open position on the board body to expose the bottomless portions of the containers so that the contents thereof can gravitationally drop therefrom.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

WALTER G. STEWART.

Witnesses MONROE HARRING, OLIVER K. FREAS.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C. 

